OK. Obama/Duncan/Gates School "Reform" Model: The results Are IN !!! Today's NYT: P. A1

[LWolf]

75. If you don't understand what is wrong with that,

then you don't understand the way standardized tests in general work, or the way they are being used to manipulate the system for the negative.

I'm not sure where to even begin. How about with this:

Decades before the advent of high-stakes testing in public education, those of us who studied psychological testing, including standardized tests, were aware of these facts:

The single greatest predictor of a standardized test, then and now, is SES: economic and education levels.

The only way standardized test results could possibly be valid for the purposes of evaluating the teacher, rather than the tester, would be to ensure that every single factor affecting results outside the teacher's area of influence was controlled. This is not possible. Therefore, the tests are not a valid measure of teacher effectiveness, but a political tool used against teachers.

This invalid and unethical use of standardized test scores is not good for public education as a whole. It sets up a culture of competition, not collaboration. Competition for what? For the students with higher SES that everyone knows will score better on the test, making the teacher look better. It's also a tool of teacher control. When admins want to silence dissent among the staff regarding harmful "reforms," they simply need to adjust the rosters of the dissenters for the next term or year, miraculously producing lower test scores and therefore lower credibility. And yes, I've seen this done.

What is the best way to provide quality education for every student? A culture of collaboration, where everyone supports each other, or a culture of competition, where someone else's "failure" makes you look better?

It IS a good way to keep eroding the nation's confidence in teachers, and the ability educators have to affect education policy. If your goal is to get rid of teachers' unions and make teaching a technician's position, rather than a profession, then using student test scores to evaluate teachers is helpful. If you want to improve the quality of students' education, try kicking the corporatist privatizers out, and turning the system over to actual educators.